"The Great Game Guarantee" allows users to return any EA Origin game within 24 hours of first launching it.

EA have just launched "The Great Game Guarantee" initiative for its Origin digital distribution platform, which offers full refunds of any EA digital purchases for unsatisfied customers. From the F.A.Q: "The Great Game Guarantee allows you to return EA digital game downloads (PC/Mac) purchased on Origin for a full refund within 24 hours after you first launch the game, within seven days from your date of purchase or within seven days from the game's release date if you pre-purchased/pre-ordered, whichever comes first."

"We stand by our games. If you're not completely satisfied with your digital download purchase from Origin, you can return it."

While this is a pretty fantastic deal, there are, of course, some restrictions. First off, it seams only EA published titles are eligible for the refund - at the moment it won't work with third-party titles that are available on Origin. DLC is also excluded, and if you buy games in a bundle, you can't pick and chose certain games to return, you have to return the entire bundle.

Lastly, if you live in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Korea, Germany, Russia, or Poland, EA wants you to sit tight, as the Great Game Guarantee will not be initially available in these regions.

This is some bizarre-o world stuff going down right here. First there was the Humble Origin Bundle, now this? Maybe EA is not literally Hitler after all. This actually puts Origin one step ahead of rival platform Steam, which only offers refunds in extreme circumstances.

That's all we want EA, give us customer satisfaction and not be anti consumer and we will happily pay for your games. Keep up the good direction you've been taking this week and you'll make the sales. Bravo *claps*

I may actually look at buying a few cheaper origin games, that's how it works provide me with a good service and I provide you with sales.

RicoADF:That's all we want EA, give us customer satisfaction and not be anti consumer and we will happily pay for your games. Keep up the good direction you've been taking this week and you'll make the sales. Bravo *claps*

I may actually look at buying a few cheaper origin games, that's how it works provide me with a good service and I provide you with sales.

Yeah. Maybe Peter Moore meant his whole "we can do better speech.

Or maybe this is some sinister trap to hide the launch of their new "soul theft" division.

Probably the latter. But for now, I'm impressed that they seem to have gotten this notion in their head that customer satisfaction matters.

This is a brilliant direction to go in, but I'm leery of saying EA is wonderful just because they've tried this. I seem to remember John Riccitiello being brought in as damage control the last time, promising to move away from the "evil" reputation the corporation had earned over the years, and appearing to do it for a while... before going right back to running it the way a cartoon villain would.

But still, this is a step in the right direction, a direction that ideally these DD platforms would be required to go in by law.

Edit: By the way, part of the reason I'm not totally believing the change of heart: the "new CEO" is actually the old one, the one Ricitiello was brought in to replace in the first place. Who I believe was in turn brought in to replace Ricitiello. The whole company has been messed up since Trip Hawkins left, I guess is what I'm getting at.

Nice! I hope Valve follows suit. It took me several emails to get a partial refund (store credit) for Final Fantasy VII on Steam when I was unhappy with it. It would be nice if they'd extend it to third-party titles though, or at the very least give developers the option, but this is still a good thing!

Hmmm, this is quite interesting actually. I'm hoping this will motivate Valve to do something similar. This doesn't directly impact me at all though, since I haven't bought an EA game since BF3 and nothing they have announced interests me in the slightest.

juyunseen:Interesting idea. I like the concept, but it doesn't change the fact that they have yet to convince me to get an origin account.

What exactly do you want before you sign up for a free account?

I have felt no need to download any games off of it, and therefor haven't taken the time to sign up. I'm just not compelled to sign up. But I no longer feel as much animosity towards EA as they're enacting smart business practices.

CardinalPiggles:Aren't most EA games about 5 hours long? What's there to stop people from completing a game a giving it back?

The download speed. I've only used Origin once, and that was for SWTOR, so I can't say for personal experience, but my friend had alot of trouble downloading games from Origin, which he never had with other services, not just Steam. Though I like that they are making progress, I might reinstall Origin if they keep this up.

I gotta give credit where credit is due, this is a great move and it's really nice to see something consumer friendly from EA.

Realistically, you can't have the "evil overlord of videogames" forever before it starts hurting your reputation and your bottom line. Eventually, you're going to have to work to improve it, and I'm personally quite happy to see it.

This is basically a return policy. This is an AWESOME thing. If I buy a shitty game on origin, I CAN return it. This does mean that sales are less likely to happen because PC games are no longer a permanent sale. Though I would likely favour this over any kind of sale.

*nod* as you should. Now as long as this process is painless and you don't have a room full of monkeys on technical support when a game launch or older game goes awry this should work out well for you EA.

People have to remember that the return policy only applies to EA titles. Which for Origins means a fair majority of it is eligible. Can Valve with Steam even do that? They are a distribution service and developer, not a main publisher like Ubisoft, Activision, EA, ect. By the same principles they could only apply it to their own games, like Half life, Portal, and Left 4 dead. Valve would be unable to do the same unless they got permission from every publisher that sells their games through Steam.

RicoADF:That's all we want EA, give us customer satisfaction and not be anti consumer and we will happily pay for your games. Keep up the good direction you've been taking this week and you'll make the sales. Bravo *claps*

I may actually look at buying a few cheaper origin games, that's how it works provide me with a good service and I provide you with sales.

Yeah. Maybe Peter Moore meant his whole "we can do better speech.

Or maybe this is some sinister trap to hide the launch of their new "soul theft" division.

Probably the latter. But for now, I'm impressed that they seem to have gotten this notion in their head that customer satisfaction matters.

agreed, i'm actually giving a "not bad/impressed" face while reading this article, and to be honest i understand there policy of 24 hours/within 7 days of purchase, most games can be beaten in that time, so people COULD theoretically beat most games and just turn them back in for full refund. also, laws in different countries can a bitch to work with, so hopefully they get this smoothed over so everyone can enjoy it.

still, between the humble bundle being 100% donated to charities, and this, they are trying VERY hard to get access to my wallet, if DA3 is remotely decent and doesn't show signs of shortcuts or this:

then I'll consider getting the game...hell I might just buy it digitally from origin...*gulp* for full price.

As I've said (over and over again), corporate arms-races are a GOOD thing.

I wonder how many people will stretch as haaaaaaaard as they can to twist this into a bad thing, like they did with the whole "giving $7M to charity" thing. At least now I can REALLY annoy those people by asking "Would you rather they didn't offer the refunds, and thus remain the same as Valve?"

Yeah, I was going to say, this is something even Steam doesn't offer- though I wouldn't be surprised to see Valve try to catch up in the relatively near future. I'm no fan of Origin, but competition is a good thing!

This is the last thing I expected to happen. EA leading the charge in the right direction for once.

Then again I suppose a broken clock is right for 2 seconds of every day.

Or I guess a better analogy would be they've kept charging in the wrong direction for so long they're now on the other side of the world... so they're finally getting closer. Extreme version of "taking the long route".

The big positive of this is I can see Valve having to offer the same sort of deal to remain competitive... then again, when was the last time you played a Valve title that wasn't F2P?

I did recently get a refund from Steam for Blade of Destiny (do not buy this game, it's horrid) and it only required 2 days and 2 e-mails, but I wasn't the only one getting a refund for the game because it was released in an unplayable state.

EA used to be the the man. My Gamecube game collection is filled with games from EA. Now if they turned their shit around and stopped being "evil" I wouldn't mind seeing a few more EA emblems staring back at me from my game collection.

While this is a pretty fantastic deal, there are, of course, some restrictions. First off, it seams only EA published titles are eligible for the refund - at the moment it won't work with third-party titles that are available on Origin.

If someone told me Bigfoot, the Mothman, and Nessie bought a third-party game on origin, it's the last part I'd have trouble with.

Someone send a care package to hell, because Satan is freezing his ass off.

I had to double check to make sure it wasnt april again.

OT: This is a very impressive policy, I must applaud EA in this direction.

And I must also give EA props, they have convinced me with this to buy Dragon Age Inquisition when it is released. Because now I can try the game myself and see if they shit all overthemselves like they did with DA2, and I will know that if it turns out suck I wont be stuck with it and my money wasted and I can give it a fair shake.

Bravo EA, Bravo.

EDIT: If Microsoft comes out and announces they are going to provide XBL gold free of charge next gen, my heart may well explode..

lacktheknack:As I've said (over and over again), corporate arms-races are a GOOD thing.

I wonder how many people will stretch as haaaaaaaard as they can to twist this into a bad thing, like they did with the whole "giving $7M to charity" thing. At least now I can REALLY annoy those people by asking "Would you rather they didn't offer the refunds, and thus remain the same as Valve?"

People twisted seven million dollars being given to charity as a bad thing? Only way I could see that as a bad thing if the charities were for mad scientists and super villains needing money to cause evil.

This is pretty good of EA to do this. I am hoping that games I bought before this was implemented can also be returned because I have some that I don't really care for. I am hoping to see out of this that both Steam and Origin eventually get to the point where they allow people to trade their games in.

Bat Vader:People twisted seven million dollars being given to charity as a bad thing? Only way I could see that as a bad thing if the charities were for mad scientists and super villains needing money to cause evil.

My favorite line: "Well, EA is CLEARLY up to something. We should get the FBI/CIA to investigate them immediately."

It somehow triggered my "donkey laugh", "kill everybody" and "Lord have mercy on our souls" reactions all at once.